An Unexpected Encounter
by DarkNite88
Summary: Alfendi Layton never expected to see his father again, even less to work with him on a case which has stumped Scotland Yard for almost three months. May contain spoilers for Curious Village, Pandora's Box, Unwound Future and Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. /ON HIATUS/
1. Prologue

Prologue

Kaitlyn Pryor's legs might as well have weighed a ton. She walked with heavy footsteps towards the waiting taxi, clouds of dust arising around her in the summer heat. All her luggage was already in the trunk, thanks to her father, who now looked at her, sweaty and teary-eyed. She didn't flinch, although she could feel a lump arising in her throat.

"Good luck, Katie-pie, we'll miss you!" her mother waved from the porch of their luxurious suburban home.

'_Then you shouldn't send me away_,' Kaitlyn thought bitterly, climbing into the taxi with a huff.

She looked at her brand new shoes for a good five minutes, fiddling with the strap of her tote and picking at loose strings on her skirt. The tote was a themed one - a brown, rectangular creature with a wide open, toothy red mouth and two black dots as eyes. Arms and legs had been sewn on the bag. The salesperson had told her the name of it, but she had long since forgotten.

It was only when her neighbourhood was out of view that she truly regretted not having paid more attention. It would be a good year before she would be able to visit it again. Her pride had cost her those last, precious impressions.

_[Music: Professor Layton and The Unwound Future Theme - /watch?v=U-W4iDW5o6Y]_

She sighed and pulled out various textbooks from her school bag, each with a brand new, custom-made label, each emblazoned with the sigma of her new school and home for years to come. She rapidly flipped through her preassigned copy of _Lord of the Flies_; an anthology of poems; her history textbook; her Japanese workbook before finally settling on her Math book. The textbok was small but thick, bearing the scent of book and plastic. The bright blue cover did not pique her fancy, but the interior did.

She had always been the best at maths, and as such, it was her favourite subject. She loved the feel of how she was able to write numbers and symbols as others wrote letters, how equations came naturally to her and no geometry problem stood it's ground long as she faced it. The more complicated, the better - nothing better than to get her brain whirring. She was sure of it - what she got out of maths was better than the mental stimulation she got out of all the puzzle games in the world combined.

She pulled out her new book: sleek, black cover, rungs and crisp, white, lined paper on the inside; coaxed a millimetre and a half of lead out of her silver mechanical pencil which now resided in the convenient breast pocket of her new boarding school uniform, opened up to a random page and began to work. Her worries evaporated as her mind focused.

When she glanced up again, she had filled up four and a half pages in her book, and the time had mysteriously advanced by an hour. She had had her math fix, and anyways, the constant jolts of the car made it hard to write.

She opted to spend time just gazing at the passing nature, turning on her iPod and putting on some music, spending a good few minutes deciding what track suited her mood. The white earbuds fit snuggly inside her ears, and she clutched her tote like a soft toy as the sky darkened and raindrops speckled the windows.

A few tracks down the road, the taxi driver eventually made an attempt at small talk.

_[Music fades to background]_

"So. Um, Kaitie?"

"Kaitlyn," she corrected. Whilst she was a fan of all the quirks of nicknames and was by no means a refined young lady, she had never felt comfortable with anyone but her friends and family calling her anything other than her full name.

"Kaitlyn, right," the taxi driver said. Thanks the the reflection of the windscreen, she could see a small smirk lift the corners of his mouth.

"So, you going to Braxton Girls'?" he queried, although the answer was written plainly on her fancy red blazer.

"Indeed," she said, the word coming out of her mouth with a sarcastic lilt before she could stop it.

"My, my, little Miss Feisty I have in my car here," he joked, before adopting a more serious tone. "But, I've got to say, it's been a while since I've dropped off someone at a boarding school. In fact, I haven't. Ever. It's kinda… old fashioned, y'know?"

Kaitlyn didn't reply to what was, in her mind, a taunt.

Noticing, her grim expression, the taxi driver smiled. "Hey, grumpkins, it's cool. No, like, offense intended or anything. It's just a little unusual." He turned around in his chair and shot her a grin.

"I would much rather you look at the road and pay attention to your actual job. I don't believe 'ability to make small talk with passengers' is part of your job description. Correct me if I'm wrong."

"Hey," he said, sounding upset, although the smile did not get erased off his face, "you know, you don't have to be so annoyed all the time."

"I'm not," she retorted. She wasn't annoyed. She was… she was hurt. That her parents would send her away. Even if, as was the case, they believed it was the best path for an academic prodigy such as herself. She huffed, tucking back a strand of her wavy chestnut hair and sat back in her chair.

_[Music comes back on]_

The trail soon turned to forest, and according to the time, they were halfway there. The leaves of the trees cast pleasant, ever changing shadows on the ground and the car. The track started to go downhill.

At that moment, she heard a soft whirr. She looked around before she noticed a thick film of dark glass descending, separating the back of the car from the front.

"Um, sir?" she asked, suddenly worried.

All she saw was the reflection of his devilish smile and the glass descended, then the separation was complete.

"Hey!" she yelled, banging on the glass, but to no avail. "Hey!" she screamed again, heart racing.

Through the still normal windows of the back of the car, she could see the trees go by faster and faster. They were going downhill, speeding up, and the driver wasn't stopping them. She noticed a bend in the road further up, and panicked. They were going to hit that tree.

She yanked at the doors, attempted to roll down the windows, but they were blocked.

Eventually, nearing desperation, she unclipped her seatbelt, took out her swiss army knife from the pocket of her skirt and smashed it into the left side window. It broke, shards of glass flying, stinging wherever they hit. She tried to clear the edges as to not get cut any more whilst making her escape.

The car kept speeding up, speeding up, at an incredible pace, and the tree became nearer and nearer. Too near.

Truly hyperventilating now, Kaitlyn worked as quickly as possible. She barely had time to stick her hand out the window, though.

_[Music halts]_

Somewhere in the woods, a scream and crash were never heard.

* * *

**All music links are on YouTube.**

**9 Aug 2014: Update! I fixed a minor detail. All you who are reading it now, worry not. **


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When Lucy Baker opened the door to the dubbed 'Mystery Room', the person she never expected to find standing there was a slightly aged man in a somewhat outdated top hat.

"How may I help you?" she asked, somewhat intimidated and, to a degree, embarrassed by his gentlemanly demeanor.

"I believe this is the office of Alfendi Layton?" he asked politely.

Lucy's eyes widened. She hadn't expected him to be an acquaintance of the Prof.

"Um, I'll go get him," she started to say, but was interrupted by a sleepy-sounding voice from somewhere behind her. To the left a few feet, perhaps.

"Lucy, who is it?"

"Um…" She realized that she hadn't even asked the man's name. "Um," she turned to him.

_[Music: Professor Layton's Theme - Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright (this is exactly the same as the original, but a little more high pitched): /watch?v=uiCf_Urxggc]_

"I am Professor Hershel Layton. And you are?"

Lucy gulped, eyes widening. So this was the father and true Prof that Alfendi had mentioned on occasion.

"Lucy Baker," she squeaked.

At the mention of his father's name, Al stepped forwards, his shocked expression outmatching only Lucy's. He quickly resumed his usual apathetic and borderline expression. "What do you want?" he asked, a hint of venom in his voice.

"May I come in?" the older Layton asked.

"Uh, certainly!" Lucy hurriedly exclaimed, moving aside, knocking over a pile of paper in the messy room in her clumsy attempts to allow Layton to enter. She let out another squeak and gathered them in a messy pile, somewhat reminiscent of how they were once organized.

Layton entered, followed by a teenage boy she hadn't noticed before.

"Alfendi, it's been a while."

Al stayed silent.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

"Oh, no, it's all fine," Lucy gushed, successfully preventing any angry words from Al.

"All is well, then. Alfendi, may I have a moment?"

Al grumbled a response, and they headed towards the office. Lucy stayed outside with the boy.

"And you are?" she asked after a moment.

"Luke Triton," he said, smiling in an attempt to mask his previous nervous expression. "Lucy Baker, correct?" He advanced towards her, holding out a hand.

"That is correct. Pleasure to make your acquaintance," she replied, shaking the hand.

Another bout of silence passed.

"So, do you know why the, um, Professor is here?"

"He didn't tell me all the details, as usual, but from what he did tell me, we're here to perhaps work with you on an incident which remains unsolved for about a year now. The mysterious car crash, I believe."

"Oh, yeah, that," Lucy mused. They had indeed received the file following a year of unsuccessful Scotland Yard investigations. "Real bummer, that one. Car crashed in the woods. A girl was found, identified as Kaitlyn Pryor, though the taxi driver was never to be found. Though the man was reported to authorities, they found no one by that name, as it were," she clarified for Luke, in case he hadn't heard it all quite yet.

"Mhmm. I heard about that much," he confirmed, scratching his chin. From the room beside them, snippets of words were heard, Al's angry voice in dramatic contrast to Layton's calm one. Lucy shook her head and tried to ignore them.

"So," she began, changing the subject, "how long have you known the Professor?"

"Oh, well, it stems from a while back, when there was an incident in my hometown. After that, I became his apprentice." He paused, smiling, eyes sparkling. "We had great times together. We found the Golden Apple of St Mystere. We discovered the true nature of Pandora's box. We travelled to Future London." Lucy's eyebrows shot up at that last statement, but Luke seemed to be telling the truth, judging by his tone of voice and facial expression. "Then I had to move away," he said sadly. "It was a pain… He was truly my best friend." Luke could only too well recall the un-gentlemanly tears he'd shed when he was forced to board that boat. "I'm so glad I came back," he concluded.

Before Lucy could say anything, Layton and Al emerged from the room. She looked at the older man, searching for any external injuries, imagination running wild and fearing the worst. She hated to admit it, but she had become a little scared of Al. Thankfully, everything was fine. The latter stuffed his hand in his newspaper-filled pockets.

"We have reached a conclusion," Layton announced. "As I recalled correctly, quite a mysterious case arrived here about a week ago. Luke and myself shall be working with you two to solve this mystery." Luke beamed at the words, obviously glad to be working with his mentor once more.

"Just to clarify, it wasn't my fault, he's too stubborn," Al grumbled just loud enough for Lucy to hear, and she glared at him. What was so bad about seeing his father after all this time?

"Very well then," Layton continued. "That shall be all for today. Let us take our leave, Luke."

Lucy instinctively rushed and opened the door for them.

"Thank you, Lucy," Layton acknowledged, shooting her a smile.

"I look forwards to working with you guys!" Luke exclaimed excitedly as he passed.

_[Music fades]_

Once they were gone, Lucy closed the door and turned, arms crossed to Al.

"What were that all about?" she asked harshly. She waited for a response but got none. "I honestly don't know what's gotten over you! What's so bad about seeing your father? He's a nice man!"

"Nice?" Al scoffed. "All my life, all he told me was 'be gentlemanly' this, 'be gentlemanly' that. I resented him. I don't know how Luke can stand him."

He turned around angrily, but when he spoke up again, his tone softened. "He paid attention to me when I showed talent with puzzles and mysteries. He did all he could for me, even when Mom died," his voice cracked momentarily, "and now I've failed the expectations that he set out. I turned into the very thing he didn't want me to be." Lucy shivered at the thought of his other, criminal-loving personality.

"You're free to leave now, Lucy. It's 5 PM."

"But, Prof-"

"Didn't you hear me the first time?" he snapped. "I'm not a professor. My father is. We're finished for today. Go home."

With a sigh, Lucy picked up her satchel and headed out of the door, thoughts racing through her head. There had to be more to the current hostility between Al and Layton than he had said.

_[Music: Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall: /watch?v=Q0OHEGUgIGM]_

Her mind shifted onto the car crash as she got into her own car. How on Earth had the taxi driver disappeared without a trace? Going at such a pace, it would be near impossible to escape from a moving car. And poor Kaitlyn Pryor… A fourteen year-old girl, and pretty much a child genius at that, based on the books she had in possession that the police had managed to recover from the crash. A smart, innocent girl, dragged into such an unfortunate incident… She would have liked to meet her - according to her parents, she expressed a great interest in not only becoming an officer at Scotland Yard, but also held Professor Layton in very high regard, trying to model her personality in accordance to his. It had been her greatest dream to meet him.

She kept driving, although her throat tightened and her eyes stung as she thought of what could have been, and the sad truth - for many, their dreams only come true when they're dead or gravely sick.

* * *

**Whilst I will generally stick with Professor Layton music, I will occasionally insert tracks from other games/anime/whatever (this one is from Touhou Project).**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_[Music - A quiet town: /watch?v=LCxIOlRBNGA]_

Lucy barely got any sleep that night. The events of the previous day had kept her up well past midnight.

First, her mind had focused on the more immediate problem at hand. This, surprisingly, was not the mystery that they faced, but the family feud which was emerging by the minute. This mystery was killing her - _what_ had happened between Layton, father and son? It was a question that had endless possible answers, yet no matter how hard she racked her brain, no matter how many of those possible answers she came up with, none of them seemed… right.

With a sight, she had given up on the topic, promising herself that she would pester Al on a later until till the point that he cracked and told her everything. Just… not now.

As she finally pushed the subject out of her mind, another one came flying in. The subject she was supposed to be thinking about right now.

Much like the Professor, Lucy had once more withheld some of the details from poor Luke.

After the unexplainable car crash which had killed 14 year-old Kaitlyn Pryor, the supposed taxi driver was located and interrogated. However, it turned out that he was at a wedding party in Paris, France, at the time and had numerous witnesses to his presence, thereby clearing him of all suspicion. Going by that, it seemed that the taxi driver had not only disappeared but also never been there in the first place, which lead to the conclusion that it was a man posing as him. Yet the question remained of how exactly he had done that, and then of course how he had disappeared.

What bothered Lucy the most was the fact that the case was so old. The culprit could be anywhere on the globe by now, and there would be no way to locate him. True, it had only been three months, yet that was long enough for anything to happen, really. It was really the only disadvantage to working in a back-office, as Deputy Commissioner Chan had rightfully called it. They would have to rely on luck and people's good memories. "That's not how it's supposed to work," Lucy said aloud to herself with a sigh.

A devilish and somewhat immature thought crossed her mind for a moment as she got dressed, quickly brushing her hair and topping it with her usual salmon newsboy cap. The hat had been a gift from one of her cousin's daughters, who had died in a car crash at the age of 8. Lucy clipped on her badge, feeling some pride, and smiled at herself in the mirror.

She wondered briefly what Al was doing at the moment. Was he also debating whether or not he should show up? Was he even up by now? Lucy had always imagined him as someone who slept it, drank nothing but coffee for breakfast, using a paper cup to save him dishes and chucking it into an overflowing trash can once he was done. The thought of it made her laugh a little. She hoped that he would show up, so that he could set up the crime simulator. That would be much easier for all of them, and she didn't know how to operate the machine, let alone what to put in it, since the Prof- wait, no, Al - had taken all the files once Lucy had barely skimmed through them.

5 minutes into her trip to Scotland Yard, she got stuck in the usual morning traffic jam as the weather became miserable. At this rate, she was going to be very late.

Turning on the radio, she hoped that Luke would be wise and quick enough to take up the role of a mediator.

_[Music fades]_

* * *

_[Music - London: /watch?v=HDyT-msFFCg]_

Luke waited impatiently with Layton in front of the Mystery Room, swaying from foot to foot. As always, the professor had ensured that they were on time, but the same couldn't be said for his son. The burgundy-haired man had not yet made an appearance, despite it being 10 minutes past their designated meeting time. Luke's first impressions of Alfendi certainly weren't going to rise with this behaviour. Already he could not forgive him for causing the Professor so much pain. There was a reason that his mentor didn't mention his son very often.

He stopped swaying and concentrated on the quasi-barren wall. Five years had passed since the events in 'Future London', and so he was no longer a kid. He clearly remembered had Clive had acted like a proper gentleman, one that the Professor would certainly be proud. He was now probably the same age that Clive was back then, so it should only make sense that he acted a little more like him. A feeling of nostalgia swept through him as he wished that nothing had changed.

His enigma-solving skills had certainly gotten better over the 5 years he had been away, but his goal of matching the Professor was still way over his head. No matter what kind of clever puzzles he had come up with had been solved with a few minutes at the most. Now, he tried to come up with any sort of enigma, but was unable to do so. The bricks gave him some kind of inspiration, but it was the Professor who spoke first.

_[Music fades]_

"Luke, my boy."

"Yes, Professor?"

"Do you see over there, where there is the machine into which you insert a passcode? It reminded me of a puzzle I heard when I was a child. Would you like to hear it?"

The answer, of course, was yes.

_[Music - Puzzle theme: __/watch?v=tcs066Q4rvU]_

"A papal legate was to be at a secret meeting held between knights. In order to be let in, he has to give the password to the guard at the entrance. He hides himself and listens to the people who present themselves to the guard. A man arrives. The guard says to him: 'five', the man replies: 'four'. He is allowed to pass. A second man presents himself. The guard says to him: 'six', and he replies: 'three' and passes. A last man appears. The guard says to him: 'seven', and he replies: 'five', and enters. The papal legate's turn arrives. The guard says 'nine'. What should he respond?"

It was a fairly easy puzzle, nothing compared to the usual tricky ones the Professor usually gave him, but just as Luke started to ponder over it, the man they had been waiting for finally made an appearance. _[Music halts] _However, it was not from up the corridor as they would have expected, but rather from within the Mystery Room. The door violently swung open, a grunt could be heard, and then Alfendi disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared.

"We… better go in," Luke said, a little awkwardly.

"Indeed, my boy. You can tell me the answer later."

Luke swallowed hard and followed a few paces after his mentor. To his right, another door was open, from where some colourful light was emanating, as if a t.v. was on. The two men gasped as they stepped in. It was as if they had been automatically transported to the scene of the crime. Alfendi was standing there unhappily, arms crossed.

"W-what's this?" Luke babbled in shock.

"It's a crime scene reconstruction device," Alfendi explained. "One of a kind technology. The scene of the crime has been fully restored, so we are able to examine it without even being there. I suggest we get straight to it."

Luke was certain that Alfendi's cold tone of voice was directed at him, this time, rather than the Professor. Certainly Alfendi thought that he was an inexperienced little boy who was just flitting around the Professor, hanging desperately onto his coattails in an attempt to seem intellectual. Oh, how he would prove him wrong!

Unfortunately, this resolve vanished almost immediately as Luke took a closer look. The scene was reconstructed to perfection. This included the blood and gory sight of Kaitlyn Pryor's body. Her left arm was sticking out of the window, and by the looks of it, her shoulder had been dislocated. Inside was a mess of broken glass and deflated airbags. Amongst this was her body. She was cut all over, presumably from the glass. She had been flung against the front seat. A picture hovering over her body showed what seemed to be severe bruising on her torso. Luke was wise enough to know that this was the result of internal bleeding.

"The victim was Kaitlyn Pryor, age 14. The taxi she was riding in crashed against a tree. The driver somehow disappeared and is presumed alive. One of Pryor's broken ribs pierced her heart, which is most likely the cause of her death. She also suffered from organ rupture as well as many small cuts and bruises all over her body. Her left shoulder has been dislocated, presumably since she stuck it out the window just before the crash." Alfendi droned off the details as if he was an elementary kid who had to recite a poem in front of the class.

"Any other details?" Layton asked, his voice calm.

Alfendi shrugged. "That's about it in a nutshell. Here's the file." He stiffly handed the folder over to his father, who proceeded to flip through it.

Luke took a few deep breaths, swallowing down a bit of bile that left and unpleasant feeling in his throat.

"Luke, my boy," the Professor said after a few moments, looking at the teen with concern, "if you wish to step outside for a moment, you are welcome to do so. I could imagine that such a scene would be unnerving for young people."

Luke nodded and hurried out, getting a cup of water and eagerly gulping it down. The taste of bile still lingered, though, and refused to go away.

At that moment, the door swung open, startling him. Lucy gingerly stepped in, her clothes a little wet.

"L-Lucy?!"

"Hehe." She let out a nervous giggle. "Sorry I'm late…" She glanced up at the clock, confirming that she was almost an hour late.

"What happened?"

"I got stuck in a traffic jam, I were. I decided to that it would go faster to park somewhere and walk. I had my umbrella, but since the wind were blowing, I got wet. Traffic, huh. Anyways, uh, where are the others?"

"In there," Luke answered, gesturing with his head. "Alfendi set up a… thing."

"Oh, the crime scene? So that's why he took the file. Must've spent all night here… You not going in?"

Luke paused for a moment. "Uh, I guess so. It's just a little disturbing, I guess."

"I see." Lucy paused, looking at him. "I'll wait for you, then, until you're ready to go back in. You'll get used to it soon though, so don't worry." Lucy could recall almost too well how irked she was about blood when she was younger. She had almost fainted once when her friend had cut herself really deep one time.

After a few more gulps of water, Luke set the cup down and gave a small nod.

"Let's solve this case together," Lucy smiled.

* * *

**Sorry for the late update. I've got tons of stuff to do at the moment, so it may take a few weeks in between updates, yeah. **

**Anyways, it's up to you to solve the puzzle for poor Luke! What do think the password is?**

**Just to clarify, Luke is about 12-13 in Unwound Future. That makes him just about 17 here. I also made Layton a little older than he actually is, just so that he could have become Alfendi's father at a slightly more... reasonable age. **


End file.
